I'm tempted to rename this piece Five things we learned this week about the Boston Red Sox, or, Four things we learned this week about the Boston Red Sox and that perfect game, but I won't, because that will upset Rangers, Nats and Dodgers fans who have the best records in baseball, and Royals fans who are crying out for attention after losing 12 straight, not to mention every other baseball fan that isn't overly influenced by the goings on in Beantown.

Blaming Bobby in Boston

Let's start with a quote:

"I have rarely, if ever, seen a manager at any time during the year have a worse week than Bobby Valentine has had."

• With the Sox riding a three game winning streak, he went for the struggling Kevin Youkilis, saying that he hasn't been "physically or emotionally into the game as he has been in the past for some reason." Then he apologized, which I think was a mistake.

• Then Bobby had to listen to Dustin Pedroia defend Youkilis, and talk smack about his past managerial gigs, which is probably the worst thing that happened to him:

"I don't really understand what Bobby's trying to do, but that's not the way we go about our stuff around here. I'm sure he'll figure that out soon … Maybe in Japan or something, but over here in the US we're on a three-game winning streak and we want to feel good and keep it rolling."

• It wasn't all bad, as rain cancelled play on Sunday night, meaning Terry Francona would not be spending his 53rd birthday in the ESPN broadcast booth talking Red Sox baseball all night, which must have come as a relief for ownership, who really should be taking the brunt of all this, never mind Epstein, who is safely out of town in Chicago with the Cubs.

• Finally, on Monday there were reports of an alleged Spring Training incident that supposedly had Valentine go crackers on the shortstop Mike Aviles during a drill. Aviles flat out denied the "very ugly incident", and not even Dustin Pedroia could admit this happened. Still, it's drama.

The Sox moved Bard to the bullpen, travelled to Minnesota and won two straight games, granted against an awful Twins team with a staff ERA nearly as bad as Boston's. Still, wins are wins, and now everybody can calm down for five minutes.

Should we all be blaming Bobby? No. There was the Youkilis thing but so what? The Red Sox have the worst pitching in all of baseball by a mile, and Bobby can't do anything about the clown car bullpen, never-mind the injury riddled outfield.

The Sox team ERA is over six, worst in the AL. Meanwhile, they can still score, and are in the top four in the AL in runs. You have to think if the staff had any kind of a pulse whatsoever, they could be hanging around .500 waiting to get healthy before making a run. Instead, crisis, which for the moment, has slightly cooled. While they were all freaking out, they should have taken a moment to look over at the Rays and their highly touted pitching staff that had an ERA of over five as late as this weekend, never mind the Angels and Albert Pujols, another team struggling to get going, one that features a homer-less gazillionaire dollar slugger who's pushing .230.

Hall-of-Fame writer Peter Gammons of MLB.com: "Yankee enthusiast:"As bad as Boston pitching has been, other than Ortiz what active Sox position player would start for Yanks?"

Fan CitizenJaney: "i think the red sox bull pen did better when they were drinking and eating fried chicken. just an observation."

Yes, it's always all about the Mets

On Saturday, while the city of Boston was collectively freaking out, Chicago White Sox pitcher Philip Humber became the 21st pitcher to throw a perfect game in a 4-0 victory out in Seattle. Selfishly, all I could think about were my Mets, which have never had a no-hitter, never mind a perfect game, in 7977 contests. Humber is now the seventh player to throw a no-hitter/perfect game after leaving the Mets, while New York has had no less than 35 one hitters since joining the National League in 1962.

After Humber, a top draft pick who was traded for Johan Santana in 2008 got out 27, I tweeted:

"How many have there been? I can only think of David Cone. But way to make that achievement about the Mets."

He's right of course. I have taken what is a remarkable achievement and turned it into a self-absorbed public self-pity session. I even derided a San Diego fan who had the nerve to complain about the Padres not having one in 43 years, childs play compared to the Mets 50 plus years of no no-no's.

Mets neurosis aside, Humber is a feel-good story. A 28-year old former would-be phenom, Humber bounced around several teams before landing with Chicago and settling into their rotation last season, earning a spot with a 9-9 record and a 3.75 ERA in over 161 innings. His perfect game lowers his season ERA to .63 in 14 innings along with 16 strikeouts and just three walks, the kind of numbers he was expected to put up regularly with the Mets when he came out of Rice as a super-prospect. Now he's part of Robin Ventura's White Sox rotation that is surprising many by putting up the second best staff ERA in the AL. Jake Peavy has been pitching lights out at 3-0 with a 1.88 ERA, while Chris Sale has also put up formidable numbers. Their offense is challenged but they're in every game, and hanging around in the AL Central. It will be tough for the hurlers to keep it up without getting more run support, but for now, Sox fans have to be pleased with the ballclub.

"Despite the enormity of the accomplishment, baseball, with all its games and storylines, moves on quickly — the hubbub is already dying down, everywhere but Chicago of course. Not surprisingly, Boston and New York's tabloids didn't even feature Buehrle in their main headlines, choosing instead to keep their focus on the local clubs."

You could put Humber's name in there and it would work perfectly.

Old Man Moyer still has it

Humber is not the only feel-good pitching story going. Raise your (reading) glasses for Colorado's Jamie Moyer who made history by earning a victory against the Padres last week, at the tender age of 49 years and 150 days. Moyer actually had Tommy John surgery 16 months ago, making it all the way back to the Rockies rotation thanks to a blistering 78 mile-an-hour cutting fastball that the Padres couldn't touch. Moyer didn't allow an earned run in seven innings, lowering his ERA to 2.55, while besting Jack Quinn who won a game at 49 years and 70 days back in 1932 for the Brooklyn Dodgers. Just in case you thought the record-setting performance was a flash in the pan, just check out what he did against Pittsburgh's monster lineup:

Jamie Moyer: 6IP 1R 1ER 3BB 3K - no decision

His ERA is now down to 2.28, that's nearly two runs better than his career ERA! Yes, he has faced the likes of San Diego and Pittsburgh but regardless, what more could you ask for a guy on the doorstep on senior citizenship. By the way, just for fun, I looked at Moyer's rookie team, the 1983 Cubs to see who was the oldest player. It was Davey Lopes, whose rookie season was 1972. Then I couldn't resist, and checked out who the oldest teammate was on '72 Dodgers. It was 49-year-old Hall-of-Fame reliever Hoyt Wilhelm--he was the same age as Moyer is now. That means between Moyer, Lopes and Wilhelm, you can connect three players back to 1952, Wilhelm's rookie season. What this all means I have no idea, but I had a heck of a lot of fun doing it.

Arms race escalates in Washington

The Washington Nationals are off to their best start since leaving Montreal back after the 2004 season. The Nats are 13-4, almost entirely because of their pitching staff, more specifically their starters. Let's take a look:

That's a 1.72 ERA for the starters, which needless to say is completely out of this world. Even scarier is their average age, 25.8 years old. This crew could be together for a long time, and that's not good for their NL East opponents.

The overall staff ERA is a paltry 2.21, surviving the inflated numbers of Tom Gorzelanny and temporary co-closer Brad Lidge, who manager Davey Johnson, recently a winner of his 1200th career game, is sticking with in that role for now, and possibly until Drew Storen comes back from elbow surgery around the all-star break. Will the Nats still be winning at this rate by then? Probably not with their bats, which counterbalance the amazing pitching staff. If they had any kind of offense, we'd be talking World Series in Washington. Having said that, if Michael Morse makes a successful comeback in around a month, and the Nats super-prospect Bryce Harper comes up and makes a splash, that could form a lethal 1-2-3 punch along with Ryan Zimmerman that could add the pop they need to take it to the next level. For now however, that's a lot of what ifs, especially when you consider the 160 innings limit Nats brass say they have on Strasburg. For now the biggest concern in Washington should be the attendance. I know it's April, but the weather has been good and the team is great, so there really is no excuse as to why the Nats rank 15 of 16 NL teams in attendance.

Extra Innings

• Cliff Lee went on the 15 day DL with an oblique strain, adding to the Phillies injury problems. There is some hope on the horizon however, with Chase Utley finally working out, testing his balky left knee. There's been progress, but still no timetable for a return.

• Who has the best run differential in the National League? The St. Louis Cardinals, who don't seem to mind life without Albert Pujols, or Tony La Russa for that matter. Lance Berkman went on the DL with a calf injury, but the team is more than hanging in there, thanks to Carlos Beltran's five homers, and Kyle Lohse's incredible pitching performance, 3-0 .99. Lance Lynn has been more than adequate while Chris Carpenter recovers from nerve issues, going 3-0 with a 1.42. There are concerns about Adam Wainwright's ERA which is approaching ten.

• How do you think owner Art Moreno feels about his Angels, who got shut-out by Tampa and David Price last night. What did Pujols do? 0-4. Still no jacks. Gulp.

"I have never used steroids," Clemens is heard saying without hesitation during a 2008 deposition on Capitol Hill. "Never performance-enhancing steroids."

• Meanwhile, the all-star catcher Ivan Rodriguez retired after 21 seasons, 13 of which came with the Texas Rangers. "Pudge" was teary eyed during the press conference that had ex-teammates such as Rafael Palmeiro in attendance.

• Meanwhile, Texas' Yu Darvish defeated Hiroki Kuroda in a hyped up battle of Japanese hurlers that saw many fans in Japan up with the rising sun to watch. Darvish was brilliant, striking out 10 Yankees in 8.1 innings in a 2-0 victory. Darvish gave up two of his seven hits to Derek Jeter, who extended his hitting streak to 14 games, during which he has cracked five doubles and four home runs.